Bitcoin company BitFury adds two to board

BitFury Group, a bitcoin infrastructure provider based in San Francisco and Amsterdam, has added Bill Tai and Varun Gupta to its board. The firm has also named Gupta as chief legal and compliance officer. Tai is chairman of the Maxthon and TreasureData‘s board while Gupta previously worked at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld where he was a corporate and securities partner and focused on IPOs, private equity deals and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. BitFury’s backers include Binary Financial, Crypto Currency Partners, Georgian Co-Investment Fund, Queensbridge Venture Partners and ZAD Investment Company.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO & AMSTERDAM–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BitFury Group, the leading Bitcoin transaction processor and miner, today announced it has added two industry veterans to its board as the company solidifies its leading position in the emerging global Bitcoin industry.

Bill Tai and Varun Gupta were named to BitFury’s board; Gupta was also named chief legal and compliance officer of the company.

Tai, who will head the board’s strategy committee, has served on the Board of Directors of seven publicly listed companies over a more than 20-year career in technology venture capital. He is Chairman of the Board of Maxthon and TreasureData, and established the Menlo Park office of Charles River Ventures. Tai is an early investor or board member of companies such as Lulu, Tango, Tweetdeck and Voxer. He is also an adjunct professor of innovation at Curtin University in Australia.

Gupta joins from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a leading international law firm, where he was a corporate and securities partner and focused on initial public offerings, private equity transactions, and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. He also advised public companies on corporate governance and compliance matters. Gupta has been recognized as a leading corporate lawyer by various legal publications and has over 20 years of experience advising companies on legal and accounting matters.

“These hires will give us tremendous experience, contacts and insight as we work to establish BitFury as the cryptocurrency infrastructure leader and I’m thrilled that they’ve joined us,” said Valery Vavilov, CEO of BitFury. “Their combined understanding of both international markets and technology will be invaluable as we grow and mature.”

Gupta added: “I am very impressed with BitFury, its founders and its management. I am glad to be joining the team to further develop our leadership position. Over the last six months, we have witnessed tremendously positive developments in the Bitcoin industry and we believe Bitcoin adoption is going to further accelerate. Recent criminal actions against bad actors within the Bitcoin space are good for our industry as they are intended to punish illegal behavior and they will eventually build consumer trust in Bitcoins and their transformative and value-accretive potential.”

About BitFury Group
BitFury Group was founded in 2011, and is based in San Francisco, Calif. and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is the world’s largest provider of semiconductors, servers and datacenter solutions for the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry, and one of the largest miners of Bitcoin, with computing centers across Finland, Iceland and Georgia.